Shalva Mshvelidze

Shalva Mshvelidze studied at Tbilisi State Conservatoire. Subjects and genres recorded for the work are opera. Distinctions recorded are Stalin Prize, Order of Lenin, Order of the Red Banner of Labour and Medal "For Valiant Labour in the Great Patriotic War 1941–1945".

• Name — Shalva Mshvelidze • Native Name — შალვა მშველიძე • Born — 28 May 1904 • Birthplace — Tiflis, Tiflis Governorate, Russian Empire • Died — 5 March 1984 • Place of death — Tbilisi, Georgian SSR, Soviet Union • Resting Place — Didube Pantheon, Tbilisi • Occupation — Composer, music teacher

Mshvelidze was born on 28 May 1904 in Tiflis (now Tbilisi). He graduated in 1930 from the Tbilisi State Conservatoire, where he studied composition under Mikhail Bagrinovsky, and afterwards undertook graduate study at the Leningrad Conservatory and the Tbilisi Conservatoire under Vladimir Shcherbachov.

As a student, on a commission from the composer Dimitri Arakishvili, Mshvelidze travelled across Georgia collecting folk music, and he was the first to introduce the folk idiom of the Pshav-Khevsureti highlands into Georgian art music. Drawing on this heritage, he became a pioneer of epic symphonism in Georgian music, beginning with the symphonic poem Zviadauri (1940). His works include the operas The Tale of Tariel (1946) and The Right Hand of the Master (1961), both staged at the Tbilisi Opera and Ballet Theatre; the oratorio Kavkasioni (1949); several symphonies; the symphonic poems Zviadauri (1940) and Mindia (1950); and music for theatre and film. He also wrote theoretical studies on instrumentation and orchestration. Mshvelidze taught at the Tbilisi State Conservatoire from 1929 and became a professor there in 1942. He served as chairman of the Composers' Union of Georgia from 1941 to 1952 and, from 1947, as director and artistic head of the Georgian State Song and Dance Ensemble.

Mshvelidze died in Tbilisi on 5 March 1984 and was buried at the Didube Pantheon.